Carbon prices are needed to incorporate climate change costs into economic decision making. Carbon pricing should be included as part of a broader arsenal of tools to achieve domestic climate targets, but it is not a silver bullet: other policy instruments and investments (for example, public...

By 2050, two-thirds of the planet's population will live in urban centers, and nearly 90 percentof the 2.5 billion new urban dwellers will live in Africa and Asia. The world's urban areas wereresponsible for around 70 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2013, and that numbercould grow...

This working paper commissioned by the World Bank Carbon Markets and Innovation Practice (GCCMI) critically examines experience with carbon markets under the Kyoto protocol. The de facto end of the Kyoto Protocol and heralding of the Paris Agreement era has created the space for critical...

Carbon markets under the Paris Agreement are expected to differ substantially from those that emerged under the Kyoto Protocol. Unlike the top-down approach of markets created by the Kyoto Protocol, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), international carbon markets under Article 6 of...

Housed within the climate funds management unit (SCCFM) of the climate change group (CCG) in the World Bank, the biocarbon fund (BioCF), a public-private initiative, has pioneered results-based payments for emission reductions (ERs) from the land-use sector. The challenges can be daunting:...

This retrospective examines how the World Bank's strategic use of climate-related trust funds has enabled it to play an outsized role in catalyzing climate action worldwide for nearly 30 years. By looking back at the history of climate and carbon finance, with a focus on the pioneering role of...

The Paris Agreement provides a framework for all countries - both developed and developing - to voluntarily adopt individual targets, elaborated in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). This effectively introduces commitments on the country in the sectors covered by their NDCs....

Digitalization is increasing rapidly worldwide, requiring more energy, and resulting in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) two thirds of the world's population are now online. Estimates of the internet and communication technology (ICT)...

The time for action to build a better future and green recovery has never been stronger as we navigate the uncertainty of a world attempting to manage its way out of a triple crisis: debt sustainability, climate change, and pandemic. The fiscal constraints of governments across the globe open...